ncmpc(1)ncmpc(1)NAMEncmpc - curses Music Player Daemon (MPD) client.
SYNOPSISncmpc [options]
DESCRIPTIONncmpc is a client for MPD, the Music Player Daemon. ncmpc connects to
a MPD running on a machine on the local network.
By default, ncmpc connects to localhost:6600. This can be changed
either at compile-time, or by exporting the MPD_HOST and MPD_PORT envi‐
ronment variables, or by the command line options --host and --port.
$ ncmpc --host=musicserver --port=44000
To use a password with mpd, set MPD_HOST to password@host or use the
command line option --password. Values from the command line overrides
values from the environment.
Read more about MPD on http://www.musicpd.org
OPTIONS
-?, --help
Display help.
-V, --version
Display version information and build-time configuration.
-c, --colors
Enable colors.
-C, --no-colors
Disable colors.
-m, --mouse
Enable mouse.
-M, --no-mouse
Disable mouse.
-h, --host=HOSTNAME
Specify MPD host.
-p, --port=PORT
Connect to server on PORT.
-P, --password=PASSWORD
Use password when connecting.
-f, --config=FILE
Read configuration from file.
-k, --key-file=FILE
Read key bindings from FILE.
Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or
optional for any corresponding short options.
CONFIGURATION
When ncmpc starts it tries to read the user's configuration file,
~/.ncmpc/config. If no user configuration file is found then ncmpc
tries to load the global settings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/config (the
actual path is displayed in the output of the --version option). An
example configuration file (config.sample) should be provided with
ncmpc.
Connection
host = HOST
Connect to mpd running on the specified host.
port = PORT
Connect to mpd on the specified port.
password = PASSWORD
Connect to mpd using the specified password.
timeout = TIMEOUT
Attempt to reconnect to mpd if a response to a command is not
received within TIMEOUT seconds. Specifying a value in the con‐
figuration file overrides the "MPD_TIMEOUT" environment vari‐
able. If no timeout is specified in the configuration file or in
the environment, the default is 5 seconds.
Interface
enable-mouse = yes|no
Enable mouse support (if enabled at compile time).
screen-list = SCREEN1 SCREEN2...
A list of screens to cycle through when using the previous/next
screen commands. Valid choices, if enabled at compile time, are
playlist, browse, artist, help, search, song, keydef, lyrics,
outputs, and chat.
search-mode = MODE
Default search mode for the search screen. MODE must be one of
title, artist, album, filename, and artist+title, or an interger
index (0 for title, 1 for artist etc.).
auto-center = yes|no
Enable/disable auto center mode. When auto center mode is
enabled ncmpc centers the current track in the playlist window.
scroll-offset = NUM
Keep at least NUM lines above and below the cursor on list win‐
dows, if possible.
find-show-last = yes|no
Show the most recent query instead of a blank line for a find.
find-wrap = yes|no
Wrapped find mode.
wrap-around = yes|no
Wrapped cursor movement.
bell-on-wrap = yes|no
Ring bell when find wraps around.
audible-bell = yes|no
Sound audible bell on alerts.
visible-bell = yes|no
Visible bell on alerts.
crossfade-time = CROSSFADE TIME
Default crossfade time in seconds.
seek-time = NUM
Seek forward/backward by NUM seconds.
lyrics-timeout = NUM
Quits downloading lyrics of a song after the timeout of NUM sec‐
onds is reached, if NUM is greater than zero.
jump-prefix-only = yes|no
When using the jump command, search for the prefix of an entry.
That means typing "m" will start to the first entry which begins
with "m".
lyrics-autosave = yes|no
Automatically save lyrics after receiving them.
lyrics-show-plugin = yes|no
Show the name of the plugin used to receive lyrics on the lyrics
screen.
text-editor = EDITOR
The text editor used for editing lyrics.
text-editor-ask = yes|no
Ask before starting an editor.
chat-prefix = PREFIX
Prefix messages send with the chat screen with PREFIX. By
default they are prefixed with the current user name enclosed by
< and > and a space (i.e. "<name> ").
second-column = yes|no
Display song length in a second column.
Display
welcome-screen-list = yes|no
Show a list of the screens in the top line on startup.
wide-cursor = yes|no
Make the cursor as wide as the screen.
hardware-cursor = yes|no
Use the terminal's hardware cursor instead of inverse colors.
hide-cursor = NUM
Hide the playlist cursor after NUM seconds of inactivity.
scroll = yes|no
Scroll the title if it is too long for the screen.
scroll-sep = STRING
the separator to show at the end of the scrolling title.
list-format = SONG FORMAT
The format used to display songs in the main window.
search-format = SONG FORMAT
The format used to display songs in the search window. Default
is to use list-format.
status-format = SONG FORMAT
The format used to display songs on the status line.
status-message-time = TIME
The time, in seconds, for which status messages will be dis‐
played.
display-time = yes|no
Display the time in the status bar when idle.
timedisplay-type = elapsed/remaining
Sets whether to display remaining or elapsed time in the status
window. Default is elapsed.
visible-bitrate = yes|no
Show the bitrate in the status bar when playing a stream.
set-xterm-title = yes|no
Change the XTerm title (ncmpc will not restore the title).
xterm-title-format = SONG FORMAT
The format used to for the xterm title when ncmpc is playing.
Colors
enable-colors = yes|no
Enable/disable colors.
color background = COLOR
Set the background color. If the background color is assigned to
the keyword none, ncmpc will not change the background color.
Standard colors are: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta,
cyan and white. Terminal specific colors can also be given as
integers.
color title = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color and attributes for the title row. Text colors
are the same as for the background. Valid attributes are: stand‐
out, underline, reverse, blink, dim, and bold.
color title-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color for the title row (the bold part).
color line = COLOR
Set the color of the line on the second row.
color line-flags = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to indicate mpd flags on the second row.
color list = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color in the main area of ncmpc.
color list-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the bold text color in the main area of ncmpc.
color browser-directory = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display directories in the browser
window.
color browser-playlist = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display playlists in the browser win‐
dow.
color progressbar = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the color of the progress indicator.
color status-state = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display mpd status in the status win‐
dow.
color status-song = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display song names in the status win‐
dow.
color status-time = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display time the status window.
color alert = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
Set the text color used to display alerts in the status window.
colordef COLOR = R, G, B
Redefine any of the base colors. The RGB values must be integer
values between 0 and 1000. Note: Only some terminals allow
redefinitions of colors!
KEYS
When ncmpc starts it tries to read user-defined key bindings from the
~/.ncmpc/keys file. If no user-defined key bindings are found then
ncmpc tries to load the global key bindings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/keys
(the actual path is displayed on the help screen).
You can view ncmpc's key bindings by pressing '1' (help) when ncmpc is
running. To edit key bindings press 'K' and use the key editor in
ncmpc.
SONG FORMAT
Format of song display for status and the list window. The metadata
delimiters are: %artist%, %albumartist%, %composer%, %performer%,
%title%, %album%, %shortalbum%, %track%, %genre%, %name%, %time%,
%date%, %file%, %shortfile%.
The [] operators are used to group output such that if none of the
metadata delimiters between '[' and ']' are matched, then none of the
characters between '[' and ']' are output; literal text is always out‐
put. '&' and '|' are logical operators for AND and OR. '#' is used to
escape characters.
Some useful examples for format are:
"%file%"
and
"[[%artist% - ]%title%]|%file%"
Another one is:
"[%artist%|(artist n/a)] - [%title%|(title n/a)]"
CHAT PROTOCOL
If ncmpc has been compiled with "chat" support, it uses the client-to-
client protocol available in MPD 0.17 or higher to communicate with
other clients. In order to receive messages it subscribes to the chan‐
nel with the name "chat", and displays any message sent there as-is.
When the user enters a message, it is first with the prefix specified
by the chat-prefix option (or the default prefix), and then sent to the
"chat" channel for others to read.
BUGS
Report bugs on http://www.musicpd.org/mantis/
NOTE
Since MPD uses UTF-8, ncmpc needs to convert characters to the charset
used by the local system. If you get character conversion errors when
your running ncmpc you probably need to set up your locale. This is
done by setting any of the LC_CTYPE, LANG or LC_ALL environment vari‐
ables (LC_CTYPE only affects character handling).
SEE ALSOmpc(1), mpd(1), locale(5), locale(7)
June 2005 ncmpc(1)
